RNC Chairman Reince Priebus speaks at the Republican Leadership Conference. (Photo by Gage Skidmore.)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Pablo Pantoja, a state director for the Republican National Committee in charge of Hispanic outreach in Florida, is leaving the Republican Party.

In an email to his colleagues, Pantoja cited among his reasons for leaving a “culture of intolerance surrounding the Republican Party.” He also said he will join the Democratic Party.

Since the 2012 presidential election, in which Republicans received dismal support from minority voters, the RNC has been making an effort to reach out to Hispanic voters. The committee hired state directors to carry out this work in key swing states including Florida. Pantoja was among the hires whose job was to attract Hispanics to the Republican Party.

As the Tampa Bay Times reports, Pantoja was well qualified for his position with the Republican National Committee. A Puerto Rican and a graduate of Florida State University, Pantoja was a field director in the 2010 midterm elections for the GOP.

However, his time working with the national Republican Party during immigration reform prompted a change of heart.

The Times reports that the change comes on the heels of a “Heritage Foundation study on immigrants touted by a fellow who used to argue that Hispanics have a lower IQ than non-Hispanic immigrants.”

The foundation study was released at the same time a bipartisan coalition of U.S. Senators — which includes Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida — proposed legislation for comprehensive immigration reform in the United States.

Here is Pantoja’s letter (via the Times):

Friend,

Yes, I have changed my political affiliation to the Democratic Party.

It doesn’t take much to see the culture of intolerance surrounding the Republican Party today. I have wondered before about the seemingly harsh undertones about immigrants and others. Look no further; a well-known organization recently confirms the intolerance of that which seems different or strange to them.

Studies geared towards making – human beings – viewed as less because of their immigrant status to outright unacceptable claims, are at the center of the immigration debate. Without going too deep on everything surrounding immigration today, the more resounding example this past week was reported by several media outlets.

A researcher included as part of a past dissertation his theory that “the totality of the evidence suggests a genetic component to group differences in IQ.” The researcher reinforces these views by saying “No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.”

Although the organization distanced themselves from those assertions, other immigration-related research is still padded with the same racist and eugenics-based innuendo. Some Republican leaders have blandly (if at all) denied and distanced themselves from this but it doesn’t take away from the culture within the ranks of intolerance. The pseudo-apologies appear to be a quick fix to deep-rooted issues in the Republican Party in hopes that it will soon pass and be forgotten.

The complete disregard of those who are in disadvantage is also palpable. We are not looking at an isolated incident of rhetoric or research. Others subscribe to motivating people to action by stating, “In California, a majority of all Hispanic births are illegitimate. That’s a lot of Democratic voters coming.” The discourse that moves the Republican Party is filled with this anti-immigrant movement and overall radicalization that is far removed from reality.  Another quick example beyond the immigration debate happened during CPAC this year when a supporter shouted ““For giving him shelter and food for all those years?” while a moderator explained how Frederick Douglass had written a letter to his slave master saying that he forgave him for “all the things you did to me.” I think you get the idea.

When the political discourse resorts to intolerance and hate, we all lose in what makes America great and the progress made in society.

Although I was born an American citizen, I feel that my experience, and that of many from Puerto Rico, is intertwined with those who are referred to as illegal. My grandfather served in an all-Puerto Rican segregated Army unit, the 65th Infantry Regiment. He then helped, along my grandmother, shatter glass ceilings for Puerto Rican women raising my aunt to become the first Puerto Rican woman astronomer with a PhD in astrophysics (an IQ of a genius as far as I’m concerned). Puerto Ricans, as many other Americans still today have to face issues of discrimination in voting and civil rights.

Regardless of what political affiliation people choose, my respect for some remains. I don’t expect all Hispanics to do the same (although I would hope so) but I’m taking a stand against this culture of intolerance.

I am also making a modest contribution (here: http://bit.ly/12uf3g8) to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for the efforts in helping protect the rights of immigrants and civil liberties in general.

With warm regards,

-pablo

Some members of the Republican Party in the U.S. House and Senate have taken issue with the Senate’s immigration bill. Among their reasons for opposing the bill is a provision that provides a lengthy path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, as well as what they say are few border security measures.

However, the Senate has to vote on hundreds of amendments to the bill, which could drastically change the final legislation.

Even though more conservative members of the House and Senate oppose the path to citizenship, a large percentage of Floridians support immigration reform plans.

While Rubio is fighting for immigration reform in the Senate, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz Balart, R-Miami, is trying to hammer out a similar plan in the House.

U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Florida, and other Republican members of Florida’s congressional delegation are opposing a path to citizenship, even as a poll suggests their constituents support it. (Photo by Lingjing Bao)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s immigration plan, which includes a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, still faces strong resistance from Republicans in Congress. At the same time, a poll shows most Floridians support a path to citizenship.

Rubio, R-Florida, is leading a group of seven other senators who released a comprehensive immigration reform bill. A similar bill is expected to come out of the U.S. House as well. Rubio’s plan includes a way for many of the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants to become citizens. The citizenship process would take several years. The Gang of Eight’s plan also includes provisions that would increase border security.

The bipartisan immigration reform plan has support from Democrats and moderate Republicans.

And a new poll from political advocacy groups Project New America and Florida New Majority shows that Floridians are also on board with the Senate plan’s path to citizenship.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that two out of three Floridians polled in this new survey said they supported or strongly supported plans to include a path to citizenship in immigration reform:

The poll was conducted the last week in April by Public Policy Polling of North Carolina, a Democratic-leaning surveying outfit that posted an impressive accuracy record through the 2012 election cycle. PPP surveyed at least 500 voters in each of the four target districts plus 621 more statewide. It’s statewide margin of error was stated as 3.9 percent and in the individual districts ranged from 3.9 to 4.4 percent.

The survey also found a strong plurality of voters statewide and in each district who said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supported a pathway to citizenship thana candidate who opposed such a pathway.

Statewide, voters said they would favor such candidates 49-29, with the rest undecided. In three of the targeted districts, the support for candidates favoring pathways was even greater, though in Webster’s the spread between support and opposition was a little tighter, 51-34.

Although a super-majority of Floridians support the Senate plan, some of Republican members of Florida’s congressional delegation aren’t as supportive.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, some members of Florida’s GOP delegation are “reluctant to embrace” Rubio’s comprehensive plan or are totally opposed to provisions such as a pathway to citizenship:

“I’m definitely not for a path to citizenship. It’s breaking the law and we’re rewarding it,” said Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Palm Harbor, adding he could support other reforms.

Rep. Trey Radel of Fort Myers said he appreciates the Senate’s bipartisan approach, but referring to the authors, he added, “I am concerned by the way the Gang of 8 is attempting to hand out citizenship like it’s a gift they can pick and choose. Before we talk about a path to anything, I am looking for a commitment to a safe and secure border.”

Rep. Dan Webster of Winter Garden said he’s concerned about provisions that would legalize about 11 million people and allow them to gain citizenship through fines and by waiting up to 13 years. “I’m thinking that through. There are people in their country who are being leapfrogged if we do that.”

Webster said he favors a piecemeal approach over the Senate’s all-in-one bill, which ran 844 pages when introduced April 17. “We’ve already seen what Obamacare did. You write a bill, you’ve got all these rules, regulations and it’s not even able to fulfill half the promises it made. Let’s do every piece right.”

The responses from one of the country’s largest House delegations (17 of the 27 Florida representatives are Republican; the Democrats are supportive of reform) show the challenges that await if the Senate bill passes.

The new poll was conducted in Webster’s and Bilirakis’ districts, as well as in other districts along the I-4 corridor. Webster’s and Bilirakis’ districts showed strong support for a path to citizenship.

The Senate will now work through the hundreds of amendments that have been filed for the immigration bill. Among the most controversial is one that would allow gay and lesbian citizens to petition for U.S. residency for their partners, something Rubio said he would not support.

Sen. Marco Rubio tries to win over the tea party crowd on immigration reform. (Photo by Gage Skidmore.)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Sen. Marco Rubio’s plans to pass bipartisan immigration reform this year have put him in the hot seat with conservatives, and Rubio is now trying to claw back into their good graces.

Rubio, R-Florida, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010 as a tea party darling and has voted in lockstep with the conservative wing of the party. However, now Rubio is getting flack from the far right for his efforts to work with Democrats to rewrite the country’s immigration laws.

His immigration plan so far includes priorities of both Democrats and Republicans, but selling the Republicans on aspects like a path to citizenship is proving very difficult for Rubio.

According to the National Review, he is spending a great deal of time wooing the talk-radio voters as he makes media rounds in an effort to win over the most conservative wing of the Republican Party — a wing of the party he would otherwise occupy:

Rubio has carefully been making the case for his plan, which includes a path to legalization and beefed-up border security. But opponents — especially the talk-radio crowd — remain skeptical. “I must tell you, I just don’t understand this, Senator,” Rush Limbaugh told Rubio last week. “I don’t understand why we’re doing something that the Democrats are salivating over.” That kind of wariness is feeding broader unease.

But as the legislation moves ahead, Rubio is betting on his ability to woo the Right. Every afternoon, he seems to be holed up in his Capitol Hill office calling yet another hesitant conservative talker. Last Thursday, he even went to visit many of them at a Washington, D.C., hotel, where there was a summit for the bill’s talk-radio foes organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

For an hour, the freshman Republican went from table to table, speaking passionately about the bill’s merits. As I shadowed Rubio, it was striking to see how much he is personally admired by the colorful conservative pundits who broadcast on local AM stations, and by the bigger syndicated names like Limbaugh. They still believe, without a doubt, that he’s a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and they love that he’s already a national force.

But when it comes to immigration, they aren’t buying it.

It’s not just influential conservatives in the media who are making Rubio’s immigration reform pitch tough. It’s also his own conservative friends in the U.S. Senate; they just aren’t buying his immigration plans.

Sen. Jim DeMint was one of Rubio’s closest friends in the Senate. The South Carolina Republicans was one of the first politicians to endorse Rubio as a tea party favorite in the race against then-Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. But DeMint is now ardently against Rubio’s immigrations plans and has been taking his case to the media.

According to the New York Times:

Though Mr. DeMint says he supports legal immigration, he prefers a piecemeal approach to fixing the system and views any path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants who are in the country illegally as amnesty, forgiveness for breaking the law.

His main argument is an economic one — a belief that unauthorized immigrants, who he said would ultimately take out more in federal benefits than they would pay in taxes, would be a drain on the economy. (Under the legislation proposed in the Senate, it would be at least 13 years before an illegal immigrant would quality for any federal benefits.)

Rubio is moving his plans and his bill forward, though — even without the support of his closest colleagues.

He is also working to address conservative misinformation through ads and media appearances. In fact, several days ago he had to set the record straight after bloggers claimed that Rubio’s bill would give cell phones to undocumented immigrants.

Despite all the right-wing backlash, it is unlikely Rubio’s bill will be stalled. As NPR reports, not all conservative groups are getting into this fight.

Sen. Marco Rubio and the Senate’s Gang of Eight filed an immigration reform proposal today. (Photo by Gage Skidmore.)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

The Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight — which includes Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio — filed their long-awaited immigration reform plan today.

The plan includes providing more security along the border between Mexico and the United States and a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who have been living in the country for a significant amount of time.

While each measure was intended to attract support from Republicans and Democrats, respectively, there is already concern about resistance to the Gang of Eight’s proposal.

According to The Raw Story:

Immigration advocates and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed discomfort on Tuesday with the immigration reform bill set out by the bipartisan “Gang of 8″ for various reasons.

“There’s enough in the bill to dissuade Republicans, and there’s enough in the bill to dissuade Democrats,” said Daniel Garza, head of the LIBRE Initiative, a conservative Latino advocacy group. “But there’s also enough in the bill to encourage and motivate both to get together.”

The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act would institute a 13-year process for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. before 2012 to become citizens, along with separate tracks for younger immigrants and increased visa caps for both science and technology workers, as well as workers in other industry.

While commending the senatorial group for making progress, DRM Action Coalition spokesperson Cesar Vargas told The Raw Story his group would be working to protect younger immigrants as the bill goes forward, specifically naming three potential opponents to the measure in the Senate.

Rubio’s decision to spearhead immigration reform has been as much about party strategy as it has been about responding to growing public support for comprehensive immigration reform. Last year was a bad one for the GOP among minority voters. Taking on immigration in a way that changes the GOP’s tone toward immigrants has been among Rubio’s goals.

According to USA Today:

[Rubio], a key member of the group who has been responsible for selling the bill to conservative members of the Republican Party, said the final product represents a “tough but humane” way to deal with the nation’s unauthorized immigrants while securing the border and fixing the legal immigration system to better suit the nation’s economy.

“While I believe this legislation is a strong conservative effort that will accomplish all these things and tries to make the best of the imperfect reality we face, it’s not perfect,” Rubio said in a statement Wednesday morning. “But I am also confident that an open and transparent process that welcomes public input i going to make it even better.”

In the coming weeks, members of both parties will decide whether to support or oppose the Gang of Eight’s proposal. It is also very likely that some provisions of the bill will change as it makes its way through the legislative process.

President Barack Obama has said he wants Congress to work quickly to pass immigration reform, once and for all. If Congress cannot make progress on its own proposal, the president will push forward his own plans, which are significantly more liberal than the Senate’s proposal.

Jeb Bush’s immigration backtrack last week is either bad timing or strategy. (Photo courtesy of World Affairs Council of Philadelphia)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

There are a couple of explanations floating around for what’s going on with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

One explanation is that Bush didn’t reverse his support overnight for a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants — he just fell victim to the lag time in book publishing.

Another is that he’s running for president in 2016 and needs to appeal to the most conservative wing of the Republican Party.

The National Journal noted that when Bush started writing his immigration book, the tea party was talking about extreme measures to deal with undocumented immigrants. Bush’s task then was to humanize himself and appeal to the far right of the Republican Party, and amnesty for undocumented immigrants didn’t allow him to do that.

Beth Reinhard writes:

The stunning reversal by one of the Republican Party’s leading champions of immigration reform and Hispanic outreach, at least in part, comes down to a colossal political miscalculation.

When Bush and coauthor Clint Bolick were writing the book during the 2012 presidential campaign, the GOP was veering far to the right. Republican nominee Mitt Romney had staked out a hard-line position against illegal immigration, blasting his primary rivals as pro-amnesty and promoting “self-deportation” for undocumented workers. Bush sent the book to the printer before Christmas – weeks before a handful of Senate Republicans embraced a sweeping overhaul that, like the proposals backed by Bush’s brother, former President George W. Bush, would allow illegal immigrants to earn citizenship.

In other words, Bush’s party moved a lot faster than the book-publishing world.

“Gov. Bush has always wanted to move the party towards a bigger solution that would provide residency and a path to legal citizenship, but he knew it would require getting Republicans to the table,” Republican strategist Sally Bradshaw, Bush’s former chief of staff, said in an e-mail to National Journal. “This book and his recommendations reflect that situation and his attempt to get the GOP talking about a possible solution. The focus of this effort is legal residency and a completely redesigned immigration system.”

But this doesn’t fully explain why Bush gave only a tacit endorsement of amnesty when asked about it recently on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Since Bush has always been an ardent supporter of a path to citizenship, why would he sound so lukewarm about it now — especially during a scheduled interview in which the topic was scheduled to be immigration policy? It’s hard to believe someone as skilled and savvy as Bush was unprepared.

But maybe it wasn’t a matter of preparation. Maybe Bush was planning all of this. And that idea supports the second explanation, which is that Bush wants to run for president in 2016. Backing off from his more liberal approach to immigration reform could put him in line with the GOP’s base, whose support he’d need in the primary.

The Washington Post believes this is a sign that Bush is back in the game. According to the Post:

His appearances mark a change in approach for Bush, 60, who has operated as more of a Republican elder statesman since leaving Tallahassee in 2007 but is now clearly considering a run for the White House.

In interview after interview this week, Bush, who had long dismissed the suggestion of a presidential run, spoke openly about his thinking on the matter, and his longtime political adviser, Sally Bradshaw, said Tuesday in an interview that Bush “will seriously think about it.”

“This is a guy who has big ideas and cares deeply about the future of the party and hopes to play a role in the rebirth of the party, but at what level I don’t think he knows,” Bradshaw said.

Of course, the only person who hasn’t explained what happened is Bush.

Jeb Bush changed his mind on a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. (Photo courtesy of World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush took a hard right turn while the U.S. Congress negotiates immigration reform.

He is wavering on a key piece of his former immigration reform plans — a path to citizenship. This was one of the few aspects of immigration reform that has kept immigrant advocates and Republicans at the negotiating table.

Bush was once considered the most moderate and visionary Republican on immigration. Now, his immigration reform ideas place him to the right of Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who leads the immigration reform effort in the U.S. Senate.

Talking Points Memo reports:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said on Monday that his immigration plan will not include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, backing off his previous support for a policy that pro-reform activists consider a centerpiece of comprehensive reform.

In an interview on the Today show, NBC’s Matt Lauer host said Bush’s upcoming book, “Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution,” appeared to “fall short” of offering eventual citizenship to the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in America today. Bush replied that Lauer was correct.

“Our proposal is a proposal that looks forward,” Bush said, “and if we want to create an immigration policy that’s going to work we can’t continue to make illegal immigration an easier path than legal immigration. I think it’s important that there is a natural friction between our immigrant heritage and the rule of law. This is the right place, I think, to be in that sense.”

Bush added that “if we’re not going to apply the law fairly and consistently then we’re going to have another wave of illegal immigrants coming in the country.”

For a long time, Bush took the position that the United States needed to create a fair system to deal with the millions of undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States. On many occasions, Bush prescribed a path to citizenship for some.

In January, Bush co-wrote an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal that said Republicans were being short-sighted to write off amnesty as they clamored for border protection.

He wrote:

In some conservative circles, the word “comprehensive” in the context of immigration reform is an epithet—a code word for amnesty. People who oppose such reform declare that securing the United States border must come before moving toward broader reform.

Such an approach is shortsighted and self-defeating. Border security is inextricably intertwined with other aspects of immigration policy. The best way to prevent illegal immigration is to make sure that we have a fair and workable system of legal immigration. The current immigration system is neither.

Bush later told NBC that he wasn’t completely ruling out a path to citizenship.

Now, TPM reports that advocates for immigration reform are stunned by Bush’s flip-flop.

Marco Rubio’s immigration could represent the GOP’s plan to save the party from itself. (Photo by Gage Skidmore.)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Until these past few weeks, Florida’s junior senator had a pretty thin resume in the U.S. Senate.

The Republican Marco Rubio had only been in the Senate about two years and hadn’t introduced any serious legislation. He’d spent most of his time siding with the ultra-conservative tea party wing of the Republican Party and worked hard on making his anti-Obama, anti-compromise credentials well known. In short, he’d been just another tea party Republican.

So it’s interesting that Rubio is now leading the charge on sweeping immigration reform that looks a lot like some of the plans President Obama has advocated.

And yet, even more interesting, this move has not lost him the support of the GOP. In fact, it’s positioned him as the new face of the Republican Party.

Time magazine, in advance of Obama’s State of the Union address, put Rubio on the cover, labeling him the “Republican Savior.”

Mike Grunwald writes in Time:

Rubio comes from a family of immigrants and married into another family of immigrants and lives in a neighborhood of immigrants, West Miami, the bilingual bedroom community where he came of age and began his dazzling ascent from city commissioner to state house speaker to U.S. Senator. Now, just two years after he arrived in Washington, the charismatic conservative often hailed as the Tea Party’s answer to Barack Obama has emerged as the most influential voice in the national debate over immigration reform. He’s also the key player in his party’s efforts to make up to Hispanic voters after a disastrous 2012 campaign featuring Republican candidates who proposed electric fences and alligators along the southern border, as well as Mitt Romney’s suggestion of “self-deportation” for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants. GOP leaders know they have a demographic problem. They hope Rubio can help provide the solution, which is why they’ve chosen him to deliver the response to Obama’s State of the Union address on Feb. 12—in English and Spanish.

After last year’s disastrous election, most Republicans acknowledged it was time for the party to change how it communicates with Latino voters. More specifically, the GOP needed to re-evaluate the way it talks about immigration and immigrants. The strategy has been to make a tea party Republican such as Rubio look like an immigration moderate who can appeal to the country’s Latino population.

In the past, Rubio has derided a path to citizenship, but his stance is evolving. He now says he wants to give a break to some immigrants. He wants to offer a path to citizenship for young people brought to the United States by their parents, for example. While his plan is not as liberal as President Obama’s, it is considerably more moderate than Mitt Romney’s self-deportation platform.

Rubio’s colleagues in the Senate — including members of the so-called Gang of Eight, which are drafting the immigration bill together – have said Rubio is the “lynchpin” of the effort.

If Congress does not act quickly to reform U.S. immigration laws, Obama has warned, he would propose his own bill.

President Obama says he will release his own immigration bill if Congress drags its feet with its own plans. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

President Barack Obama announced yesterday that he will release and pursue his own immigration reform plans if Congress doesn’t act quickly on its own.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., along with eight other senators from both parties released their immigration plans. So far, the plan is receiving broad support, including the president’s. The only pushback to the so-called “Gang of 8″ has come from conservative Tea Party members of the House who oppose any immigration reform bill that does not greatly increase spending on border control and security.  Many of those same lawmakers have also taken issue with parts of the bill that give a path to citizenship to people who are undocumented.

However, so far the senators have proposed delaying part of the reform process until more immigration enforcement has resulted in a more secure border. As of yet, though, the lawmakers involved have disagreed on exactly how that would be determined.

Obama announced that he wanted Congress to work quickly to move these plans forward and get immigration passed, once and for all.

If they don’t, Yahoo! News reports that the president will take action.

“If Congress is unable to move forward in a timely fashion, I will send up a bill based on my proposal and insist that they vote on it right away,” Obama said to applause from students at Del Sol High School.

“It looks like there’s a genuine desire to get this done soon, and that’s very encouraging,” Obama said, mentioning a blueprint put forward by a bipartisan group of eight senators on Monday. “But this time action must follow.”

…

In his speech, Obama laid out “markers” for reform, saying any comprehensive immigration bill must give most of the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants a chance to earn their citizenship gradually if they pay a fine, learn English and pass a background check. Immigrants would also have to get to “the back of the line,” which means people who have already applied for green cards would have their applications processed first.

The president’s bill would also include an employment verification system, more border security and a revamping of the legal immigration system to provide more visas for top graduates of U.S. universities and to reduce lengthy wait times for visas for relatives of U.S. citizens.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the White House’s bill would be slightly more favored by the left because it would would streamline a path to citizenship.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

White House officials made it clear that on several important details, the president prefers a more liberal approach than the one outlined Monday by eight senators — four from each party.

He would like to see a faster, simpler path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people who live illegally in the U.S. His preferred plan would also put less emphasis on additional border security. But unlike the negotiations over the budget, which have dominated much of Obama’s time since November’s election, so far he has chosen to avoid confrontation on immigration.

The Los Angeles Times also pointed out that “under the president’s plan, same-sex married couples would have the same rights as heterosexual couples to sponsor partners for legal immigration status, a right not included in the Senate plan.”

Already, Sen. Rubio has announced that he didn’t support the president’s more liberal plan.

Here is Rubio’s statement via The Tampa Bay Times:

“I am concerned by the President’s unwillingness to accept significant enforcement triggers before current undocumented immigrants can apply for a green card. Without such triggers in place, enforcement systems will never be implemented and we will be back in just a few years dealing with millions of new undocumented people in our country. Furthermore, the President ignored the need for a modernized guest worker program that will ensure those who want to immigrate legally to meet our economy’s needs can do so in the future.

“Finally, the President’s speech left the impression that he believes reforming immigration quickly is more important than reforming immigration right. A reform of our immigration laws is a consequential undertaking that deserves to be subjected to scrutiny and input from all involved.”

Experts have said that GOP success in immigration reform could help the Republican Party make inroads with Hispanic communities. President Obama won his re-election partly due to support from Latino voters nationwide.

The Republican Party is hoping to pick up some of those voters in the next big election.

Sen. Marco Rubio released his immigration plans. (Photo courtesy of Marco Rubio.)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, and seven other Senators from both parties have released their plans to reform immigration. The White House has already supported the move, but Rubio and the other GOP members of the “Gang of Eight” must sell their plan to other members of their parties.

Current contention centers on amnesty. Some GOP lawmakers, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, are convinced that Rubio’s plan — which provides a pathway to citizenship for young people, agricultural workers, and people with higher education — is a kind of amnesty program.

The Houston Chronicle reported:

While the Houston Republican — the first Latino senator in Texas history — acknowledged “the good work that senators in both parties have put into trying to fix our broken immigration system,” he distanced himself from the pathway to citizenship that some critics called “amnesty.” (Cruz did not use that term.)

“I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship,” he said. “To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, if not decades, to come to America legally.”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the four GOP senators to author the bipartisan framework, dealt directly with Cruz’s concern during an interview last night with Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs.

“I’ve long shared the same concern and that’s why we’ve outlined it the way we have,” Rubio said of Cruz’s reservations. “What we do here for people that are undocumented is they have to come forward, undergo a background check, they have to pay fines and back taxes and so forth and then all they get is a temporary status basically, think of it as a probationary status, it allows them to stay in the country and work but they don’t qualify for any federal benefits, they can’t turn that into citizenship or anything else and they’re going to have to be in that status for a significant period of time. Significant enough so that it’s a disincentive to do it in the future for anybody.”

Rubio strongly argued that his “legalization” program would not hurt anyone who had followed the rules and waited in line for citizenship.

The White House, however, is not an equally tough sell.

According to Yahoo News:

The White House praised Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s proposals for an overhaul of immigration policy and said they “bode well” for bipartisan action early in President Barack Obama’s second term.

Obama “expects to move very quickly on immigration after the inauguration,” press secretary Jay Carney told reporters. The president is expected to lay out some principles on the issue in his Feb. 12 State of the Union speech.

“The reports about Sen. Rubio’s ideas bode well for a productive bipartisan debate,” Carney said. “We hope that it signals a change in the Republican approach to this issue, because if we are going to get this done it’s going to take more than just a handful of Republicans working across the aisle.”

Carney also pointed out that the Gang of Eight’s plan “closely reflects the president’s blueprint for reform”:

Mother Jones points out:

The centerpiece of Rubio’s proposal—his plan to handle the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants who are already here—is strikingly similar to the plan Obama described it in 2011. Rubio told the Journal that undocumented immigrants in the US would need clean records, and that they would have to “pay a fine, pay back taxes, maybe even do community service. They would have to prove they’ve been here for an extended period of time. They understand some English and are assimilated. Then most of them would get legal status and be allowed to stay in this country.” Eventually, the Journal says, Rubio’s proposal would allow undocumented immigrants to apply for citizenship.

All of Rubio’s immigration reform criteria—fines, back taxes, proof of residence, background checks, and learning English—are part of Obama’s plan. The Journal describes Rubio as “charging up the middle” on immigration, even as the Florida Republican rides next to the president. And Rubio’s big idea isn’t much different in substance from what immigration reform advocates want.

The fact that Rubio’s proposal contains White House-backed ideas will make it saleable to Democrats. This is the closest thing we’ve seen to what immigration reform might look like.

Everyone is waiting for Sen. Marco Rubio’s immigration plan. (Photo by Gage Skidmore.)

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, has been making it known that he is taking on the herculean task of drafting comprehensive immigration reform. His plans could not come a moment too soon as the right and left look to Rubio for the next step.

This week, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Goldwater Institute VP Clint Bolick wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for immediate, sweeping changes to the country’s immigration laws.

They wrote:

Some policy makers are calling for piecemeal changes—such as issuing visas for high-skilled workers and investors, or conferring legal status on immigrants who were illegally brought into the country as children. Congress should avoid such quick fixes and commit itself instead to comprehensive immigration reform.

In some conservative circles, the word “comprehensive” in the context of immigration reform is an epithet—a code word for amnesty. People who oppose such reform declare that securing the United States border must come before moving toward broader reform.

Such an approach is shortsighted and self-defeating. Border security is inextricably intertwined with other aspects of immigration policy. The best way to prevent illegal immigration is to make sure that we have a fair and workable system of legal immigration. The current immigration system is neither.

Bush and Bolick insisted that Democrats and Republicans need to talk about many issues neither party wants to face. Among them: the fact that ”it is not law enforcement but the law itself that is broken, the U.S. needs workers of all types, the driver of immigration policy is ‘chain migration,’ and amnesty promotes illegal immigration.”

So far, the only person that has raised a hand to take on this task has been Rubio. And everyone else is waiting.

Bush has been a longtime supporter of Rubio’s plan and has shown interest in what Rubio eventually takes to Congress.

This week, White Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked whether the president was looking to work with Rubio on immigration reform. Carney said that he hadn’t seen Rubio’s full plan yet, but was interested in his ideas.

According to a transcript from The Tampa Bay Times, Carney told a reporter:

The President looks forward to working with Congress, members of both parties. He has always said that this is the kind of thing that has to be bipartisan and has in the past enjoyed bipartisan support from Republican leaders as well as rank-and-file senators and members of Congress.

President George W. Bush, as you know, was a strong proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, as was Senator McCain. And the President looks forward to working with Republicans and Democrats in achieving comprehensive immigration reform. He does absolutely believe that we need to do this in a comprehensive way, that that’s the appropriate way to move forward to ensure that we put in place the kind of comprehensive reform that achieves all the goals that are necessary here.

So far, only parts of Rubio’s immigration plans have trickled out.

The New York Times was able to chat with Rubio about his plan. Here are some of the things that Rubio’s plan tackles:

• “A nationwide exit system to check foreigners out of the country, to confirm that they left before their visas expired.”
• “A nationwide program for employers to verify the legal authorization of new workers.”
• “His plan would give a temporary “nonimmigrant visa” to illegal immigrants, which would allow them to remain and work in the United States. They would have to wait a “significant but reasonable” period of time before they could apply to become legal permanent residents, going to the back of the line in the existing system. Once they became residents, they could go on like other legal immigrants to naturalize as citizens.”

The Times also reported that ”Rubio’s principles did not sound very different from outlines for an overhaul that President Obama has offered.”

Rubio plans to release his proposal before the president’s State of the Union address.